5 Tips for your job search
As I have said many times, a job search is a marathon, not a sprint. So what are the five things you need to remember to keep doing, day after day, week after week, month after month? 1) Be Persistent- Follow up on every lead, evey new person you meet, after every meeting and after every interview. 2) Keep expanding your network – You can always meet new people through volunteering, serving on a committee of your professional associaton, or your alumni chapter, or through a current contact. 3) Check in once a week with a friend, colleague or coach to stay on track. What did you do last week t omove yourjob search forward? What are your plans for the coming week? Any emaisl? calls? interviews? networking meetings? 4) Don’t wait for hiring managers or interviewers to get back to you. Get back to them with additional information, accomplishments, ideas to help solve their problems or actual written proposals. 5) Take care of yourself – Get enough sleep, some exercise, eat right, and have some fun! Make time for yourself each week – whether that is getting a massage, eating your favorite dessert, going to the movies or a museum, meeting a friend for lunch, hiking, biking, gardening or painting. Remember that a job search is a full-time job for those of you not working and a part-time job for those of you working. (c) 2018 Amy Geffen All rights reserved. — GEFFEN C A R E E R S www.geffencareers.com
5 Steps Closer to "YES"
So you are going on interviews and second interviews, but not hearing back. You wonder, What is going on and how can you increase your response rate? (1) Be prepared with your specific accomplishments that can help solve the problems of that job in that company. Your resume, cover letter, pitch and interview answers must specifically address the skills required and the problems faced by the person in the position they are hiring for. (2) Make sure you fit into the culture – Is it suit and tie button down or loosey goosey wear what you will? Find out in advance so you dress appropriately for the interview. (3) Follow up immediately after each interview with each person who interviewed you. If you see more than one person serially or in a group at one time, write a separate tailored email to each person. Mention something specific they talked about at the interview. Show how you can help that person. (4) The ball is always in your court. Maybe the hiring manager is busy, on vacation, or is procrastinating because s/he has other projects to complete. If you don’t hear within two weeks then follow up first with an email and then with a phone call. (5) Keep all the balls in the air. That means keep writing to your list of targeted companies. Keep following up with emails and phone calls. Keep networking to meet new people. Keep meeting people for coffee or lunch to deepen your relationship and get introductions to more people. A job search has a lot of “nos” and rejections. No to the the application, No to the email. No to the phone call. No to the interview. No after the interview. No to the final selection. That is why you must keep doing what you are doing and never give up! Each “no” gets you one step closer to “yes”! (c) 2018 Amy Geffen All rights reserved www.geffencareers.com
5 Steps Closer to “YES”
So you are going on interviews and second interviews, but not hearing back. You wonder, What is going on and how can you increase your response rate? (1) Be prepared with your specific accomplishments that can help solve the problems of that job in that company. Your resume, cover letter, pitch and interview answers must specifically address the skills required and the problems faced by the person in the position they are hiring for. (2) Make sure you fit into the culture – Is it suit and tie button down or loosey goosey wear what you will? Find out in advance so you dress appropriately for the interview. (3) Follow up immediately after each interview with each person who interviewed you. If you see more than one person serially or in a group at one time, write a separate tailored email to each person. Mention something specific they talked about at the interview. Show how you can help that person. (4) The ball is always in your court. Maybe the hiring manager is busy, on vacation, or is procrastinating because s/he has other projects to complete. If you don’t hear within two weeks then follow up first with an email and then with a phone call. (5) Keep all the balls in the air. That means keep writing to your list of targeted companies. Keep following up with emails and phone calls. Keep networking to meet new people. Keep meeting people for coffee or lunch to deepen your relationship and get introductions to more people. A job search has a lot of “nos” and rejections. No to the the application, No to the email. No to the phone call. No to the interview. No after the interview. No to the final selection. That is why you must keep doing what you are doing and never give up! Each “no” gets you one step closer to “yes”! (c) 2018 Amy Geffen All rights reserved www.geffencareers.com
7 Proven Job Interview Questions – and What to Look for in the Answers
This is a great article from Google’s Hiring team: 7 Proven Job Interview Questions—and What to Look for in the Answers https://hire.google.com/articles/7-proven-job-interview-questions/?utm_source=https://hire.google.com/articles/7-proven-job-interview-questions/ The Hire Team Published Sep 13, 2018 How do you know when you’re talking to a job applicant you should hire? Start by asking the right interview questions. Good questions are unexpected and thus difficult to script answers for – they’re not just the common interview questions every candidate knows to prepare for – like “tell me about yourself,” “walk me through your resume,” or “why do your want to leave your current company?” To help hiring managers and human resources determine whether the person sitting across the table will become a top employee, we’re sharing seven insightful job interview questions to work into your interview process. 1. Describe your process for
How do I get a job that is not advertised?
You’ve heard me say that there are only four ways to get a job and one of them is answering ads on the internet. But that will only get 10% of the job seekers a job. What about the rest of the 90% of you still looking? One of the other three ways is GOING DIRECTLY to a hiring manager in a company. This person is in a position to hire you, if there were a job, and if you were qualified. So the object is to get in front of as many people as possible before the job is even advertised. 1. Make a list of companies you want to work for This is your job target list – your marketing plan …think of every company, association, non-profit or university where you would like to work. Do you know someone who works there or can you be introduced to someone who works there? If so, great, if not, find out the name of the person two levels above you. 2 Research the companies on your list – read their website, dig deeper to find out not only the positives but also the negatives, the deep seated problems that don’t necessarily make the headlines. Read articles in newspapers I like WSJ), talk to people who work there…get a coffee with them to find out the inside scoop. Find out what their problems, challenges, issue are and figure out how you can help solve the. 3. Write directly to a hiring manager in a position to hire you if there were a position. Say you are impressed with their company..mention one thing specifically. Say you want to learn more about hem and tell them about you. Ask for a ;meeting. 4. Call the Hiring Manager to get the meeting. This may take several phone calls. You may have to get past the gatekeeper, or administrative assistant. Call early in the morning or later in the evening. 5. At the meeting. Be curious and humble. Say what you learned and ask for more in depth information about their plans, projects, problems. At the meeting remember to say three things about yourself Ask three questions. (c) 2018 Amy Geffen All rights reserved. If you wish to unsubscribe from this blog, reply to this email with UNSUBSCRIBE in the subject line. Career Workshop starts September 17. Register here:. https://geffencareers.wufoo.com/forms/q16mk1480byl3hz/
Great article on Phone Interviewing from Glassdoor
As someone who works with candidates globally, the vast majority of our interviews/screenings are done via phone and I could not agree more with this recent article I saw on Glassdoor: 12 Things to Never Do During A Phone Interview September 3, 2018 Posted by Julia Malacoff These days, phone interviews are an unavoidable part of the job interview process, and for good reason: They save everyone involved time and effort. But that doesn’t mean that phoners require zero energy on the part of the candidate. Yes, you should spend more time preparing for an in-person interview, but many companies treat phone screens as the official first round of the hiring process. That means candidates are expected to go into them prepared with as much information about the company, position, and their own skills and strengths as possible. We asked HR pros about their top phone interview pet peeves, they had no shortage of advice to offer. Apparently, it’s quite easy to mess up your phone interview. But here’s the thing; it’s also not hard to come across well if you keep some key things in mind. 1. Never Take The Interview Somewhere Noisy It might seem like common sense, but you’d be surprised what interviewers say they can hear in the background of their phone interviews—everything from barking dogs to screaming children. “Prepare for the interview by securing a quiet space in advance, even if it means escaping to your car parked in the garage,” advises Chere Taylor, founder of Fulcrum HR Consulting. “If you can lock your home office door, by all means do it. We’ve all been there and sometimes things just happen, but the more time spent anticipating what could go wrong, the better prepared and organized you will appear to the interviewer and the greater likelihood of success.” That doesn’t mean that if your washing machine beeps once in the background all hope is lost, but the more effort you put into being in a quiet place, the more focused you’ll be. 2. Don’t Talk About Your Personal Life …Unless you’re directly asked a question about what you like to do in your off hours. “The point of a phone interview is to focus on getting to know a candidate’s professional experience and goals,” says Mckenzie Roark, campus talent specialist at Lithko Contracting. “A recruiter is trying to qualify them to see if they are the best fit for a role, and learning about their personal life doesn’t help. For example, when asked where you see yourself in five years, we don’t want to know that you hope to be married or that you want to buy a new house. That is nice but that isn’t relative to anything professional.” 3. Resist The Urge to Multitask It might be tempting to cross something off your to-do list while on a phone interview, but recruiters and hiring managers can easily tell if your attention is elsewhere. “My number one pet peeve is people who decide to multitask while on the phone interview,” says Dan Krupansky, Talent Acquisition Manager at PrimePay. “I have heard candidates washing dishes, making lunch in the microwave, going for walks, letting their dog out, and grocery shopping during the interview. I even had one person use the bathroom and flush the toilet while speaking with me.” Needless to say, this doesn’t reflect well on your level of interest in the position you’re interviewing for. 4. Skip The Money Conversation To put it bluntly, it’s simply too early in the process for you to be the one who brings up salary expectations. “Chances are if a candidate is participating in a phone interview, this is the first time they have talked with the company, and the first call isn’t the appropriate time to talk about ‘what’s in it for you,’” says Justina Strnad, the Talent Acquisition Manager for Shiftgig. “Trust me, if you are a great candidate and make it to next steps, the hiring team is going to be very transparent about what’s in it for you later on!” 5. Never Put Your Interviewer On Hold Phone interviews don’t take that long, and there probably isn’t anything else going on that is really truly so urgent that you need to pause your interview. “Do not put me on hold to take an important call that just beeped in,” advises Jeremy Payne, head of people operations at Remote Year. “I am your important call. If you are expecting extremely urgent news (like information about a family illness), be sure to preface that in the early minutes of the interview, so the recruiter is aware of the situation and so you can work with them to reschedule if that interruption does occur,” he says. 6. Never Skip The Q&A “After wrapping up a phone interview, it is typical that the interviewer will ask the candidate if they have any questions. I can’t stress this enough: ALWAYS ask questions,” says Roark. “If we have had a great phone interview and then we wrap up and they don’t have any questions for me, it pretty much ruins the whole interview. It tells me that the candidate is uninterested in the role, which in reality, might not be the case at all,” she notes. But surely, if you’re interested in a job, you can think of something to ask your interviewer. 7. Don’t Be Late It seems basic, but surprisingly, a lot of people are late to phone interviews. “About a quarter of the people with whom I schedule phone interviews aren’t on time,” says Sophie Cikovsky, who handles U.S. recruiting for Infinite Global. “While this bothers me personally, it’s also indicative of someone who isn’t very detail-oriented,” she explains. “In order to identify this early in the hiring process, I started asking all candidates a few years ago to call me as opposed to calling them at an agreed upon time. That way if I hear from them at 1:13pm or 12:49pm instead of our